I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Shifted Temptations
by
C.E. Black
erotic romance, paranormal romance in a Kindle edition that was published by Amazon Digital Services on September 17, 2014 and has 329 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
First in the Alpha Division erotic paranormal romance series and revolving around a ménage à trois with Samantha, Jordan, and Alex in Tennessee.
My Take
I can sure see why sex with two hunks would be fun, but I can also see why Sam’s dilemma would kill the mood. And while a male/female/male romance may not seem like it has good role model material, Sam’s decision to stop is a good example for any woman, no matter how many partners she has.
And, yeah, starting with friendship is great, evolving into a sharing relationship is great, but not when that’s all it turns into. I gotta say, Jordan and Alex are pretty clueless when Sam complains about the sex. Hullo? If they can be friends, why can’t they still include friendship with the sex??
Then Sam drops that shocker, and their reaction has me all up in arms. What jerks!! I sure did love her response to that one!! She’s a strong woman, and it took this crisis for her to discover that.
We know that the three of them have their discoveries through Black’s use of third personal triple protagonist point-of-view from Sam’s, Alex’s, and Jordan’s perspectives, even if they are uneven in realizing their individual truths, which makes the story more interesting (and adds more pages *grin*). Although, Bear does get a chance to put in his perspective, briefly expanding the POV.
As for the boys’ hometown, yuck. I can see why they wouldn’t want to pull Sam into their lives…if they ever chose to go home. And why would they?? Black needed to develop this aspect better.
That Liz is definitely a good friend, even if she does employ friendly blackmail. I expect the end result was what Liz was hoping for, lol. It sure does “backfire” on the boys!
While there’s some exciting action, it’s primarily character-driven…on the part of both the good guys and the bad guys.
The pace and prose are fine, but the writing itself is immature. Black has a cute story with emotion, but I’d like to see the plot more developed with better reasoning for Alex’s dad’s actions and more about the Alpha Division’s activities.
Black also leaves a lot of questions unanswered…or doesn’t develop a reasoning for some of the characters’ actions.
The Story
Sam screwed up. She fell in love with both of them. And it wasn’t meant to be. It couldn’t be. So…it had to end.
It takes a trip and a “fall” to pull Jordan and Alex back into Sam’s world, and it takes a fatal mission to pull them back out.
The Characters
Samantha “Sam” Adams is a file clerk for a lawyer who finds herself pregnant.
Liz is Sam’s best friend who lives in Knoxville where she’s an executive assistant to a hotel owner. Rachael had been Liz’s only sibling.
Jaguar shifters both, Jordan Hunt and Alex Wright, they left their pack, their home, and now run a computer programming company from their apartment. They’re also undercover on-call operatives for Alpha Division.
Alpha Division is…
…a secret special operations 10-member shifter team covering Virginia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina for the US government commanded by Teij, a Bengal tiger. Leo is Jordan’s partner. Bear is quite protective. Paul is on his first mission. Leo shifts into a lion, natch. Terry is a female fox shifter and sniper while Hawk shifts into his namesake.
Wilde Mountain, Virginia, is…
…Alex and Jordan’s small prejudiced shifter hometown — full-blood and mixed. Well, used to be “mixed”. Markus Stone had been a childhood bully. The abusive, alcoholic Lee Hunt is Jordan’s father. Alexander James Wright, Sr, is Alex’s father, full of his own importance and plenty of hypocrisy. Alex’s human mother, Luanne, had been a drunk. Layla Katz is an old full-blood friend. Angeline is Paul’s mother, a full-blood. Tye is an undefeated tiger.
Samuel Ellis Wolford is CEO and owner of the Wolford Hotels…and a playboy. He’s also Liz’s boss. Susan is a nurse at the hospital. I think Dr Reynolds is an obstetrician.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark with a stormy gray sky as a background and a barechested (nicely muscled) male facing us exposed from his nose to his beltline where a hand is reaching inside his pants, as another hand reaches over his right shoulder. His left arm is colored and spotted to reflect his jaguar side with a jaguar’s head at his elbow, his eyes looking out to the left. Just above the boy’s neck on the right is the series information barely visible in red. The title spans his chest in a white script. Just above the jaguar’s nose at the bottom is an info blurb, also in barely visible red with the author’s name immediately below that in a soft orange.
I reckon the title is how Sam feels about those Shifted Temptations, and I sure can’t blame her, lol.
